ER Date Set

It's been a pretty rocky week, but my ER is now set for Sunday, March 14th.

Since my last post my cycle was almost canceled twice, and I've had 3 different ER dates. Throughout the cycle my RE's favorite term for me is "borderline"; the amount of antral follicles I had to start was "borderline", my lining was "borderline", the number of large follicles I now have is "borderline". I realize he doesn't want me to get my hopes up, but I'm trying to stay positive.... I really wish he was a bit more of a cheerleader at this point.

Here's a brief recap since my last post:

Thurs. Mar 4th: Although I didn't have too many follicles at this point, my E2 levels looked good (63) so my follistim was reduced from 225 to 150 IUs.

Friday Mar 5th: Was my first official monitoring appointment and RE brought up canceling the cycle due to only having 2 developing follicles. He said we could up follistim to 225, and give it a couple more days. My RE was surprised not to see more follies because my E2 level was at 163.... I guess I'm just strange.  Also, my lining was only at 3.6 (it need to get to at least 8), so I was prescribed Estradiol to thicken my lining.

Monday Mar 8th: The estradiol worked! My lining was up to 8.5. I still didn't have as many follicles as my RE would like to see, but I a couple decent sized ones (1 at 12, and another at 11, and a few at 8-10). He said I have an abnormal pattern of follie growth.  When I asked what that meant, he just said he usually sees a larger number between 9-12 (after 7 days of stims).

Tuesday March 9th: My 3rd monitoring appt.  (day 8 of stims) My RE said I was borderline with only 3-4 good sized (12-16) follies. My left ovary only has 1 decent sized follicle. After he asked us what we wanted to do, cancel or move forward. He said that because of my endo removed from my left ovary, this may be just how my ovaries respond to meds. We made the decision to go forward with the hope that we have at least one fighter. We had to order more follistim and pain $900 for 600ius!


Wed. March 10th: RE upped my follistim to 300 with hopes of getting a few more of the "borderline" follicles caught up with the others.


Thurs. March 11th: I was all set to trigger tonight and go in for my ER on Sat, but when I went in for my monitoring appointment my RE said he wants to give it one more day on stims. He reduced my follistim back down to 225. We had to order more Menopur and paid $125 for 1 days worth!

So, it looks like my ER will be on Sunday. As of today's appointment I have 3 follies that are over 17, but he's hoping that some of borderline ones will catch up. I'm really starting to feel the effects of the stims now - bloating, headaches, and just feeling blah! I also have pain where I had my lap near left ovary - I think the stims are making my poor ovary work overtime!

The good news is that it looks like my ET will be on ST Patty's Day, and, being Irish, I see that as a good omen. I have my "lucky" socks ready to go!

Bring on the stims!

I had my mock transfer yesterday, and I'm good to go to start stims on Monday. My RE commented on by beautiful uterus (but I'm sure he says this to all the ladies). I really wasn't paying too much attention because I had to pee sooo bad. I had to come with a full bladder for the u/s, and because I had been admonished in the past for not drinking enough water far enough in advance, this time I drank more than neccessary farther in advance. So, naturally, he made me sit in the waiting room for about 20 minutes with an already too full bladder. I made it through the mock transfer, but I swear he's lucky I didn't pee on the vag cam. He made a comment to my dh after the mock transfer (while I was in the bathroom, finally peeing) that I had a very long uterus. Dh asked if this was good or bad, and he said it didn't really mean anything, but he'd never seen one that long. So I guess my ute is a bit of a freak show...

We also got our protocol for the rest of the cycle, and it goes something like this:

2/28 - Last day at 10 units of Lupron
3/1 - 3/10 Start Stims (225 units of Follistim, 2 units of Menopur, 5 units of Lupron)
3/11 - Possible trigger (Ovidrel)
3/11 - 3/13 - Possible ER dates
3/14 - 3/17* - Possible ET dates
*I'm really hoping that a transfer date around St. Patty's Day will bring me the luck of the Irish.

So far I haven't had too many issues with Lupron. I've had headaches the last couple days, but nothing a couple of advil can't fix. I'd say the most annoying s/e is the hot flashes; I woke up the other night drenched in sweat - it was pretty gross. From what I'd heard, I thought Lupron would be a lot worse, so I guess I can't really complain. Next up.... stims!